Said guaranteed spot in Daytona 500 in No. 26 car (cont'd)

But after Daytona, the team needs additional sponsorship to be able to race. Team owner Bill Jenkins, Said and Stoddard are among the group scrambling after it, but it's not all they need. Stoddard is preparing the cars with three other employees and admitted Friday they didn't know who'd pit the car in the 500.

"We're definitely the smallest effort in the shortest amount of time that's coming to Daytona," Said said with a chuckle. "We're really behind, and Frank's working on [the pit crew]. We're going to wait until Thursday [day of the Gatorade Duel qualifying races] and see who doesn't make the [500], and maybe steal a crew that way. Or maybe we'll put together a crew from the extras, between the Roush camps.

"Jack actually told me [Thursday], 'Any people we have that you need, you can have access to.' So that was another nice offer. But Frankie will figure it out [because] he's the brains behind that."

Said, a road-racing champion, has worked long and hard to get established in NASCAR and has such credibility he regularly exchanges text messages with team owners such as Rick Hendrick and Roush. A phone call from Roush connected Said and Stoddard, partners in No Fear Racing with Mark Simo, with Vermont businessman Jenkins.

"Jack really said, 'I've got these two guys, they're really good guys -- Boris and Frankie' -- and it was really on Jack's recommendation that [Jenkins] talked to Frankie and I, so I'm pretty excited about that," Said said. "[Jenkins] was just a successful Vermont businessman that wants to get into NASCAR. He came down and he knew that Jack Roush had to sell a team, and he negotiated with Jack Roush and bought the 26 team and all the equipment."

The result is 12 complete 2010-spec Roush Fenway Racing chassis, a Roush Yates engine deal and plenty of technical support sitting in Roush's former Truck Series shop in Mooresville, N.C.

As part of the deal, Said is leasing No Fear's facility, located in the heart of the Roush Fenway complex at the Concord (N.C.) Airport, as the base for Ford ally Richard Petty Motorsports.

"They're up-fitting it and making it look really nice," Said said. "So we had to move out of there."

But Roush's technical support, of which Said is familiar, remains.

"It's exactly the same as with No Fear," Said said. "The support I've gotten since we started our No Fear Racing team, where we'd run five or six races a year, at best -- we've gotten support to have cars as good as Carl Edwards', or any Roush car.

"That's something -- it cracks me up every time I see a text from a Jack Roush or a Rick Hendrick -- thinking where I was 10 or 15 years ago. Even my wife always bugs me [saying], 'Can you believe that Jack Roush always texts you?'

"I've been real fortunate that I've been able to forge these relationships and offer some things of value that I've had, like teaching their guys road racing. And he's [Roush] paid me back in spades by giving me all this information that makes it possible for a little team to compete."

It's the latest step in a part-business, part-sentimental connection between Said and Roush.

"Jack's been like a father to me," Said said. "He's been helping me as much as he can, giving us all the good information and it's really been a good relationship."

The latest step was Roush calling him to tip him off that the deal with Jenkins was in the making, and now that Speedweeks are at hand, Said told a tale of every time he goes into Daytona's infield media center, which is decorated with a plethora of large color photographs of significant events in Speedway history.

One of them is a shot of pole-sitter Said and outside front-row man and eventual race winner Tony Stewart leading the field to the start of the 2006 Pepsi 400.

"It's a feeling in my racing career that I'll never forget," Said said. "And every time I come here I just want that back again, so bad. Even though it's a huge long-shot this year, because we're starting really late -- but Frankie's really good at what he does and I think we'll be OK."

And if sponsorship comes through, the dream that would be the rest of the season beckons.

"My hope is to run a full year and I think I'm the closest I've ever been to doing it," Said said. "Now we have all the equipment in place to do it and the support set up to do it -- Doug Yates has the engines ready to do it and Ford's even going to give us a little help.

"So we just need to get that last piece, sponsorship, which right now is the hardest thing to find in racing."

Related:
• Roush Fenway transfers 26 car's owners' points to Latitude 43